#229 Where did my Newspaper go?

This week brings the sad move from 6 days a week newspaper to 2 days a week in our community.  The Virginian Review after 99 years is still alive, but barely.  Of course, they are not the only newspaper, magazine, print media in trouble.  Paid readership is down dramatically.  Papers are downsizing by physically reducing the size of the paper, cutting staff to the bare bones, moving content online and some are just shutting down.  The implications of this event have not been made yet.  So what has this to do with Technology?  Well if you listen to many old time newspaper people the Internet is to blame.

Print media is all about advertising.  The price you pay to buy a newspaper/magazine never came close to covering the price of producing and distributing the issue.  The decrease in circulation has made print media a tougher sell to advertisers.  So where have the readers gone?  Mainly to TV and the Internet in alarmingly large numbers.  How do we get our "news" today?

Being linked to the world wide web has made everything more immediate.  Very seldom do we read an article in print that we knew nothing about.  We can get IN DEPTH information in print, but the basic who, what, when and where facts were available almost immediately on line.   For many in today's culture, that is enough.  "Don't bore me with the details" is a cry I hear way too often.  I can read the captioned news (ie. USA Today) on my phone and get RSS (Rich Site Summary) news feeds about subjects that I am interested in to my tablet.  What is lost in all this immediate information is who is writing this condensed info?  There are hardly any by lines.  Its like the anonymous writers in the sky decide what info to put online for our consumption.

Reporters are what I am most afraid of losing in this transition.  For example it was the Washington Post reporters that broke the recent Bob McDonnell gift scandal.  Would that have happened if there were no Washington Post paying reporters to investigate?  I don't know, but I don't think so.  Investigative reporters are the guardians of a free people.  Are these online news hawkers paying reporters to investigate or are they just prepared to recycle breaking tragedies and events?  I believe the latter based on what I read.  Nothing hard hitting and very few opinions are presented.  Though you can just turn on your TV and get the snippets that are covered by the evening network news and then 24 hour news channels.  It's something to think about.

I do use the USA Today and CNN apps on my phone & tablet.  I also enjoy the BBC news app for a worldly perspective.  But I will miss my daily Virginian Review and will keep reading it front page to last page on Wednesdays and Saturdays...